UN employee in Abkhazia becomes persona non grata over vineyard near Russian base

UN employee Lucas expelled from Abkhazia

Tiphaine Lucas, who has represented the program of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Abkhazia for several years, has been accused by the Abkhazian special services of spying for Western intelligence agencies and declared persona non grata. Many across Abkhazian society have come to her defense.

The reason? A vineyard she planted too close to the Russian military base.

The Abkhazian special services gave two facts in evidence of Lucas’ “espionage”

• before moving to work in the UN, she was a military attaché at the French Embassy in Georgia;
• a program she led to lay a vineyard in the village of Primorskoye, Gudauta district, turned out to be close to a Russian military structure

Foreign Minister Inal Ardzinba personally declared Tiphaine Lucas, a French citizen, persona non grata on state television. By this time, she had already left Abkhazia.

The government’s decision to “expel the spy” did not receive general approval.

“I want to ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs, what kind of intelligence could this French woman collect in Primorsky? Are S-300 anti-aircraft systems standing there?” asked ex-deputy of parliament Akhra Bzhaniya.

“Now I will pay $200 to planet.com and I will send two 30 cm/px images to your Foreign Ministry every day with comments on which of the settings is wrong. Will you declare me persona non grata too?”

Bzhaniya called the decision to expel the French woman a shame, since Lucas led a wonderful viticulture project in Abkhazia. She attracted hundreds of thousands of euros, she was helpful and, most importantly, trusted by many in Abkhazia.

Ecologist and activist Mikhail Kiriya published a list of projects that were undertaken in Abkhazia with the direct participation of Tiphaine Lucas:

1. Support in the development of methods for combating the spread of palm pests and the provision of insecticides and sprayers therefore.
2. Conducting monitoring studies for dangerous invasive insects between 2019-2021.
3. Establishment of a nursery for the restoration Colchis boxwood forests, which were largely destroyed by pests accidentally introduced during the Olympics in Russian Sochi in 2014.
4. Training seminars for workers of this nursery.
5. A public campaign to educate the public about chestnut diseases and pests.
6. Creation of a modern laboratory of mycology and bioindication, including for research on chestnut diseases.
7. Organization of training seminars in Moscow for the training of laboratory staff.
8. Organization of a trip to Turkey for scientific workers of Abkhazia (Institute of Botany and others) to exchange experience with the leading institute of Turkey on the fight against chestnut diseases.
9. Training seminars with the Swiss Forest Health Institute.
10. Failed project to create a nursery for endemic grape varieties (kachich, agbazh, etc.).

“I don’t know what kind of intelligence can be obtained in the course of such projects. But was it worth all the fuss?,” writes Mikhail Kiriya.

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UN employee Lucas expelled from Abkhazia